2B — November 21, 2016
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Somewhere, Brady Hoke is smiling

I

ndiana called a timeout, and
then De’Veon Smith picked up
the first down, and then the

chant started
in earnest.

In the

previous few
minutes, there
had been
murmurs of
it, as if those
remaining
from an
announced
crowd of
110,288 had
been waiting to start it. Then,
with just under four minutes to
play, with the No. 3 Michigan
football team in possession and
the game finally in hand, it came
out in full force:

BEAT O-HI-O.
As the Wolverines ran out the

clock on a 20-10 victory against
Indiana on Saturday at Michigan
Stadium, the chant rumbled
throughout the building. It
continued after the clock ran out
and the Michigan Marching Band
played “The Victors.” It echoed
through the concourse as the fans
filed out of the bowl. It may well
echo around the state all week.

The chant was “BEAT

O-HI-O.” It was not “BEAT THE
BUCK-EYES,” the more common
call before Jan. 12, 2011. That
day, Michigan introduced its new
head football coach, a man named
Brady Hoke.

Hoke put the Michigan-Ohio

State rivalry on a pedestal. He
refused to wear red. He wanted to
win this game more than any of
the others. He called the Buckeyes
“Ohio” as a slight, which is how
the chant started.

As Jim Harbaugh leads the

Wolverines near the pinnacle of
the college football world, those in
the fan base try to erase memories
from the painful years that came
before. That will be hard to do this
week. Though most of Hoke’s staff

is gone, most of Michigan’s players
are his recruits — and “The Game”
is the biggest game in college
football this week, just like Hoke
always wanted.

Much has changed around

Ann Arbor since Hoke resigned
and Harbaugh arrived.
Harbaugh religiously avoids
placing more significance on
one game than another. If his
team does so, he reasons, then
it didn’t give its best effort in all
of the games — an unpardonable
sin in Harbaugh’s book. The
next game, he repeats, is the
most important one.

Brady Hoke made no such

stipulation.

“(Ohio State) is the most

important game on that
schedule, and not that the
others aren’t important, but it

is the most. Important. Game.
On. That. Schedule,” Hoke
said at his introductory press
conference, pounding the
podium for emphasis. “… It’s
very important to me, and very
… it’s almost personal.”

Hoke’s four years as head coach

will always be a sore spot because
of his record, especially compared
to his successor. But Hoke was, by
all accounts, a good man whose
players loved him. He just didn’t
win nearly enough football games.

He did, however, get his team

ready for Ohio State. In four
editions of the most important
game on Hoke’s schedule,
Michigan played some of its best
football in all of them, winning
one and making the other three far
closer than they should have been.

Hoke also put his fingerprints

all over this year’s team, and for
that Harbaugh owes him a great
deal. He recruited Michigan’s
entire starting defense, from fifth-
year seniors Chris Wormley and
Ryan Glasgow on the line to senior
cornerbacks Jourdan Lewis and
Channing Stribling at the back end
to, yes, even redshirt sophomore
Jabrill Peppers.

He brought in starting

quarterback Wilton Speight, even
after other schools shied away
from Speight following an injury
in high school. He signed all
three of Michigan’s top receivers
and laid the foundation for an
offensive line that now starts
three fifth-year seniors.

And as much as the program

is different now than it was
two years ago, parts of Hoke’s
culture remain. Fifth-year

senior Ryan Glasgow, whom
Hoke brought in as a walk-on
before he blossomed into one
of the defense’s most important
players, said after Saturday’s
game there was “no doubt” that
this weekend’s showdown is the
biggest of his career.

“Ohio State, Michigan, greatest

rivalry in sports — how can it not
be in the back of your mind from
right after the day you play it until
the next year?” Glasgow said. “I
don’t really hesitate to say that it’s
probably the biggest game that you
play in every year — all dependent
on what rankings are and what
position you’re in, but it’s always in
the back of your mind.”

In the final minutes Saturday,

Glasgow couldn’t help but hear the
“BEAT O-HI-O” chants coming
from the stands. How could he

not? The passion and sentiment
Hoke instilled didn’t leave when
he did.

“Great guy, great mentor,”

Glasgow said. “I still check in
with him every now and then.
Personally, I owe a lot to that guy.
Believed in me from the beginning.
As an unrecruited walk-on,
sometimes that doesn’t happen.”

Harbaugh, meanwhile,

preaches the importance of
treating every game like a
championship game, and it
doesn’t hurt that this really is
one. If Michigan wins Saturday, it
will win the Big Ten East division
and advance to the Big Ten
Championship on Dec. 3.

That only adds to the usual

storylines. Each team has plenty
of players from the other state,
including both starting running
backs (Michigan’s De’Veon Smith
is from Warren, Ohio, while Ohio
State’s Mike Weber hails from
Detroit). Each team is ranked in
the top three heading into the
matchup for the second time ever.

“I don’t need to say too much

about the game — it’s just the
game,” Peppers said. “Now that
it’s finally here, we can zero in on
it and put all our focus towards
it, ’cause this one’s for all the
marbles. Everything we want is
right in front of us. We just gotta
go out there and execute.”

No longer do Michigan and

Ohio State have to downplay this
weekend’s showdown to avoid
getting ahead of themselves.
Regardless of which coach is
at the helm, the game Saturday
is the biggest of the season.
Hoke and most of the rest of the
country treat it that way because
it’s “The Game.” Jim Harbaugh
and his team do because it’s the
next game. This week, it just so
happens to be both.

Lourim can be reached

at jlourim@umich.edu and

on Twitter @jakelourim.

SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN

JAKE
LOURIM

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Former Michigan coach Brady Hoke never got his team to the level he wanted, but his fingerprints are all over this year’s team as it heads into “The Game.”

scrimmage his freshman year,”
Glasgow said. “I think me and
Chris had him on a running back
draw, and we were sure to take
him down, and he kept his legs

moving, and we got back to the
line of scrimmage and we were
like, ‘This kid is a horse.’ This kid
just doesn’t stop, he’s relentless,
so that’s always awesome to have
in a running back.”

After snow angels were made

and all of the fun in Michigan’s
first snow of the year had

been had, redshirt sophomore
linebacker Jabrill Peppers pulled
Smith’s chair out for him in post-
game media availability.

Peppers took it a step further

and uncapped Smith’s Gatorade
for him, too.

It’s safe to say that Smith had

earned it.

chances to put away an inferior
team on their home field. They
know they could have lost their
fourth straight Senior Day game.
They’ve done it all before.

They played better, but did not

manage to survive, in last year’s
heartbreaker against Michigan
State. They did the same in their
home finale in 2013 against a
much better Ohio State team. In
between, they suffered losses of
every form.

The Minnesota game in

2014 brought the Shane Morris
concussion incident, to say
nothing of the fact that the
Golden Gophers came into
the Big House, dominated the
Wolverines and stole the Little
Brown Jug off their sideline.
Utah stomped Michigan until
a downpour halted play, then
stayed in the stadium and
finished it off with only Utes
fans in the building. Maryland
spoiled the Wolverines’ Senior
Day, all but extinguishing their
bowl hopes with a trip to Ohio
State coming the following week.

This year’s seniors remember

all of that. Perhaps that was
part of the emotion of this
year’s Senior Day. Defensive
tackle Ryan Glasgow finished
the live portion of warmups to
see his parents standing on the
sideline, holding a frame with
his jersey in it. Thomas, Hill
and cornerback Jourdan Lewis
shared a moment before they
ran out of the tunnel for the
final time.

“Before the game, we were

all like, ‘I can’t believe we’re
touching the banner one last
time,’ ” Thomas said. “We all
came in together, we all grinded
together and now we’re all
leaving together, except for a few
guys who transferred.

“When they started playing

that video, when they started
playing that sad music, Khalid
comes to me, he’s like, ‘I might
start crying.’ I’m like, ‘If you
cry, I’m gonna cry.’ And (Lewis)
is like, ‘No, what’s wrong with
y’all? Y’all got a game! Let’s go
win!’ And then (Lewis) is like,
‘You know, I might cry too, y’all.’
I was like, ‘We’re gonna be all
right. Let’s just go win, and let’s
make the best of this last year we
got together.’ ”

Almost four hours later, with

their final home win safely in
tow, they celebrated. Morris,
Jake Butt, Henry Poggi, Patrick
Kugler and Ben Gedeon — all
seniors who have gone through
various forms of adversity in
their own individual careers —
took a picture together. Offensive
lineman Kyle Kalis, in his own
inimitable style, waved his arms
frantically to pump up the crowd.
Glasgow, for the first time in his
career, ran to the student section
and jumped on the wall — before
he realized he was jumping in the
wrong section.

It was one of Michigan’s

least impressive victories of the
season, yet it may have been the
one most worth celebrating.
The Wolverines are 10-1 and are
heading down to Columbus next
week for a showdown against
Ohio State because they did what
it took to win Saturday.

They managed just 59

passing yards, their lowest total
of the season. They had the
same number of first downs as
Indiana, 15. They outgained the
Hoosiers by just 29. Only a pair
of De’Veon Smith touchdown
runs late in the third quarter
secured the win.

But they did secure the

win. These seniors don’t
take that for granted — and
neither does their head coach.
In 1986, quarterbacking a
then-undefeated Michigan

team, Jim Harbaugh lost the
last game he ever played at
Michigan Stadium, 20-17
against Minnesota.

“It’s not a good feeling,”

Harbaugh said Saturday of
losing his home finale. “At all.
I’m glad our guys played eight
home games and won ’em all.

“The constant, being a

Michigan football player
through the ages, is that you
play in the Michigan Stadium.
You play in that venue, that
Big House. Always has been
that way, is and always will be.
That’s the one constant — all the
time, the facilities, the changes,
society and everything else — is
that you play in that stadium.”

It hasn’t always gone

smoothly here, and it didn’t
Saturday, perhaps a fitting end
to the seniors’ careers. Michigan
trailed at halftime for the
first time all season, and with
starting quarterback Wilton
Speight injured on the sideline,
uneasiness spread among the
announced crowd of 110,288.
About a third of the student
section emptied out at halftime.

Those who remained at the

end had the opportunity to
savor the feeling. By then, the
snow had blown around the
stadium and coated the turf.
The cheerleaders made snow
angels in the end zones, and the
students threw snowballs on the
field. “Let It Snow” played over
the speakers.

With an eighth straight

home win this year, the
Wolverines added another
lasting memory to erase all
of the sour ones. Afterward,
Harbaugh, who has won 78
games as a college head coach
and reached the Super Bowl,
called it “one of the best wins
I’ve ever been involved with.”

Because, as the Wolverines

found out Saturday, that’s how it
feels to survive.

SMITH
From Page 1B

SENIORS
From Page 1B

O’Korn’s run salvages shaky day

Football games rarely actually

depend on one play, but Saturday
night, one run certainly seemed
to swing the outcome.

With the Michigan football

team trailing Indiana, 10-6, late
in the third quarter, redshirt
junior quarterback John O’Korn
was struggling. All game long,
O’Korn had been under pressure,
and most of the time, it didn’t
end well. He was sacked twice,
hurried twice and tackled for loss
on another play.

His feet have been considered

an asset off the Wolverines’
bench,
so
when
starting

quarterback
Wilton
Speight

went down with an injury last
week, it was widely expected he
would showcase them early and
often. It just hadn’t been working
out that way. As the game wore
on, O’Korn said, passing game
coordinator Jedd Fisch told him
over the phone, “You need to
make a play.” He did.

Moving to his left, O’Korn

took off scrambling, turned the
corner and started up field. It
didn’t appear to be a designed
run like other times Saturday,
but he found a hole regardless.
Fifth-year senior receiver Jehu
Chesson sealed a great block
outside, and O’Korn shot through
the lane. As he crossed midfield,
it looked like he had all kinds of
space to keep going.

“I thought I was going to

score,” he said. “Got tackled
from behind.”

Though he was stopped at the

34-yard line, it was enough to
kick-start the Michigan offense.
Senior running back De’Veon
Smith trucked a Hoosier defender
and scored on the next play.
Smith then added a 39-yard score
on the next drive, and that was
all the offense the Wolverines
would need.

Prior to O’Korn’s run, the

Wolverines
were
sputtering.

They had just 166 total yards of
offense, and even with another
strong
showing
from
their

defense, six points wouldn’t
have been enough. They were
the beneficiaries of great field

position for most of the game,
but with O’Korn starting his first
game in two years, the offense
lacked direction, creativity and,
until his long run, production.

“When John took off for that

run, that’s what really sparked
us,” Smith said. “That really is
what got the offensive line going.
It’s not like I had the whole game
in control. The defense was
definitely in control — they were
making stops and putting us back
on the field. We were just making
plays as an offense.”

O’Korn said he knew Sunday

afternoon that he would start
for Speight, and even though
no team likes to lose its starting
quarterback with two weeks left
in the regular season, there was
reason for confidence around
Schembechler
Hall.
O’Korn

had started for a season and a
half at Houston, and all spring
and summer he was said to be
in a heated competition for the
starting quarterback job.

But that optimism seemed

misplaced early. Partly due to
heavy pressure from the Hoosiers
and partly due to an apparent
tendency to leave the pocket,

O’Korn mustered just 59 total
passing yards. He was 7-for-18
on the day, with no touchdowns
or interceptions, but thanks to a
bruising game from Smith, that
was enough.

Michigan
coach
Jim

Harbaugh
said
O’Korn
“did

a lot of good things” against
Indiana, but he also said that
Speight could potentially return
for next week’s tilt against Ohio
State. If the Wolverines win that
one, they will earn a spot in the
Big Ten Championship Game
and have an inside track to the
College Football Playoff.

To beat the second-ranked

Buckeyes, though, Michigan will
need some kind of improvement
under center. Ohio State is an
entirely different beast than
Indiana, and the Buckeyes are
talented enough to bring even
more pressure than O’Korn saw
Saturday. So even as Harbaugh
and
his
players
expressed

their pleasure with O’Korn’s
performance, a nugget of truth
came from the man himself.

“Luckily,” he said, “our run

game and our O-line had my
back today.”

MAX BULTMAN

Managing Sports Editor

AMANDA ALLEN/Daily

John O’Korn looked inconsistent in his first start at Michigan on Saturday.